FIFA Fan Festival™ at Al Bidda Park draws over 1,000,000 fans

The FIFA Fan Festival in Doha has welcomed over one million fans since it opened its door on Saturday, 19 November – one day before the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ kicked off. To celebrate one million visitors at the venue, FIFA has given away two tickets to the FIFA World Cup Final at Lusail Stadium on Sunday, 18 December.

Football fan Haytham Mokhtar is the one millionth visitor to the FIFA Fan Festival and the lucky recipient of match tickets to the Final, as well as an official match ball signed by legends of the game, “I still cannot believe that I am so lucky to be the one millionth guest at the FIFA Fan Festival.

Sara and I were coming here to have a good time and shortly after I was standing on the main stage in front of thousands of people with a football signed by Cafu and Ronald de Boer, and with tickets to the Final. It is just unbelievable!” shared a thrilled Haytham.

Haytham and his best friend, Sara, originally from Egypt, now live in Qatar and though disappointed that their home nation didn’t make it to the finals this year, Haytham knows what match up he wants to see in person at Lusail Stadium on 18 December.

“Apart from my team, Egypt, I also cheer for Brazil. But, this time, I wish for a Argentina vs Portugal final so that the two great legends, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, can play against each other in a World Cup final.”

After spending the day at the FIFA Fan Festival, he commented, “My best FIFA Fan Festival highlight so far has been the FIFA Museum. I enjoyed seeing the outstanding collection of World Cup shirts dating back to the first tournament.

In general, there is a great atmosphere, with many people from all over the world, and so many different activities and music.”

Fans from every nation are descending on Al Bidda Park, situated within walking distance of Doha’s waterfront, to meet, have fun and celebrate their passion for the beautiful game.

The 145,000 square meter and 40,000 capacity venue has welcomed an average of 70,000 visitors per day.

The FIFA Fan Festival screens every FIFA World Cup™ game on giant screens and provides free entertainment with some of the most famous names from music scenes around the world.

The multi-national and multi-cultural festival of football is the perfect place for bringing fans together. A first time visitor from England spoke of his impressions of the venue, “seeing all the other nationalities come together is awesome. There’s a really good party atmosphere and everyone’s friendly, having a good time.”

The Festival is open every day, from 4pm to 2am, catering for every fan – from avid or casual football enthusiasts to lovers of music, food and culture – with its unique football and entertainment programme featuring local and international artists such as Diplo, Kizz Daniel, Nora Fatehi, Trinidad Cardona and Calvin Harris.

In addition, for the first time ever, FIFA Fan Festival has an official anthem: Tukoh Taka from acclaimed music stars Nicki Minaj, Maluma and Myriam Fares. FIFA Sound – the game-changing initiative that combines the universal languages of music and football – collaborated with Universal Arabic Music and Republic Records on the hit song. The week of its release, the record debuted as #1 iTunes song in the US as well as #1 on the YouTube list of global top music videos.

Tukoh Taka is available to download here, and fans can watch the music video here.